Night Swan
Character Analysis

A Mexican woman who Uncle Josiah loves. Night Swan was a cantina dancer all over the southwest, and was even run out of town for her “improper” relationships with men of other races. Night Swan represents another figure of cultural hybridity in the novel, moving easily between towns and settling where she feels most comfortable rather than where she is most accepted. Night Swan teaches Tayo about the power of his green eyes, explaining that she too has been the object of scorn for her place in the changing cultural face of the region. Night Swan remains confident in her own power, and makes choices for herself rather than for social acceptance.

Night Swan Quotes in Ceremony

The Ceremony quotes below are all either spoken by Night Swan or refer to Night Swan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Books edition of Ceremony published in 2006.

Section 3
Quotes

They think that if their children have the same color of skin, the same color of eyes, that nothing is changing." She laughed softly. "They are fools. "You don't have to understand what is happening. But remember this day. You will recognize it later. You are part of it now."